Careers in the Jewelry Industry: The Editor

Five takeaways from our Instagram Live interview with Brecken Branstrator.

Brecken Branstrator has been the editor-in-chief of Gemworld International for nearly two years. Based in New York, she previously spent nine years at National Jeweler, seven of which she spent as senior editor for gemstones. In 2019, she was nominated for a Gem Award for media excellence.

Here are five highlights from her interview on our Instagram account @rapaportjewelrypro.

1. The editor’s job
“As the editor-in-chief of the GemGuide, I’m in charge of directing the content for GemGuides’ print issues, once every two months. So that’s everything from writing my own stories to finding all of the stories that need to be told and the appropriate writers to write them, and making sure everybody stays on track. It also includes editing the entire book from the top down, which is one of my favorite things to do — start to finish, all stories, proofs, putting the final touches to them and sending them off. GemGuide also launched the digital newsletter as soon as I started, as a way to provide timelier content than once every two months and additional content for our subscribers. I am also in charge of writing that content, directing that content, seeing where the holes are and where we can get the writers. It keeps you busy.”

2. It’s deadline driven
“At National Jeweler, I had a daily deadline, so there was a very specific amount of work that I did every day. Once that daily story was done, I could focus on other things. When I made the switch [to GemGuide] and had two months to put stories together, I had to rewire how I was doing project management, because it was completely different and it wasn’t what I was used to. It’s proven to be a fun challenge so far.”

3. Taking deep dives
“The stories I have always found myself proudest of are the longer ones, the ones where you could really dig in. Readers might be familiar with National Jeweler’s State of the Majors print issue every year, offering all this amazing data about the state of the industry, when we all had the chance to dive into our beats even more. Those were always my favorites because I was given so much time to look at something that was potentially a very serious, needs-to-be-talked-about conversation.”

4. Tackling difficult issues
“Sometimes, in the process of writing things, I’ve had people say, ‘I really don’t think you should do this. It might upset the trade.’ For example, a few years ago when Gemfields were having a lawsuit about what was going on in Mozambique, people were saying, ‘Tread lightly on this.’ Those are the kinds of stories that you have to really take your time with and make sure that you’re balanced, but there’s never been anything that I have opted not to write because it’s a no-no topic.”

5. It’s a journey
“I didn’t start out thinking I was going to be a writer. I’ve always loved it. It’s always been something I was good at. But I didn’t think I was going to have a job as a writer. It didn’t seem lucrative or stable to me. When I went to college, I started as a business major and I ended up hating my classes. It was a lot and it really ate at me. When I finally made the switch over, I was very happy, but I was very anxious right after graduation about finding a job. It took me a year to get a full-time writing job in New York. I was anxious to have everything settled and find the path, but it never works out quite the way that you want it to. But I can’t complain. I found the path that I needed to find, so I’m happy with that.”

The full interview is online on the Rapaport Jewelry Pro YouTube channel:

Main image: How I Became a Gemstone Journalist with Brecken Branstrator. (Nicole Bednarz)